There is little evidence extreme weather events spur political action on climate change

Extreme weather events like flooding and wildfires are often cited as evidence of the need to tackle climate change. But do these events lead to real political change? Drawing on a new study covering nine European countries, Tim Wappenhans, António Valentim, Heike Klüver and Lukas Stoetzer find no evidence of a shift in the political attention paid to environmental policies in the aftermath of extreme weather events.